


poetic justice

by transvav



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF, X-Ray & Vav (Cartoon)
Genre: @me what the fuck, Kidnapping, M/M, Scars, Trans Character, burn injury, mentions of - Freeform, this is me spewing poetic bullshit i'm so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-16 02:05:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8082415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transvav/pseuds/transvav
Summary: 'but the first law is equivalent exchange and if ryan gets some of gavin’s light then gavin is taking those shadows back with him until they’ve lost sense of heroes and villains and they end up in the same bed each morning'





	

**Author's Note:**

> this all started at like midnight one time and i was super tired for whatever reason and i made a single post and it devolved into a bunch of ramblings about these two idiots i'm so sorry  
> also shh ryan has superpowers in this

gavin wakes up when he is fourteen and is offered a cigarette by one of ray’s friends and he says no because that’s just what you’re supposed to do, right. besides, cigarettes are so awful for you and gavin wants to live longer than these idiots.

gavin wakes up when he is sixteen and someone tries to convince him to take the fake id they made him and go to the club with them, but he takes it and cuts it up at home because he really doesn’t want to get in trouble. besides, gavin really doesn’t feel like going to a club any time soon, and no one there would actually give a shit if he came.

gavin wakes up when he is eighteen and ray drags him away from the shithole they _were_ living in to a new city and gavin proclaims they should be heroes- ray’s unsure, but gavin reassures him. it’s the right thing to do, he says. besides, he doesn’t mind the idea of getting a little fucked up in the worst kind of way.

gavin wakes up with he is twenty four and is given the chance to be a _real_ hero. he fucks it up immediately but it’s okay because for some reason, the city pays attention. he wakes up again and again for weeks and they clamber over him, call him this figurehead of justice, a wonder and a hero and they place him on a pedestal and call him everything good in this world and his gut twists. someone tells him how their daughter wants to grow up to be just like him, he bites his tongue to keep from saying ‘oh, god, no she _doesn’t_ , please don’t let her be like me. give her space and let her explore. what i am is not worth it.’

it’s so lonely like this.

* * *

the eeriest thing, to him, is nothingness. the silence against the bustle of the world behind the door is indescribably terrifying. but he has a meeting. he swallows his fears, and leashes his shadows, and beckons them forward and on.

it is nearly dawn. 

the hero has been tied here all night, to suffer, to listen, to drown in emptiness. the king can only hope he has dimmed. if there’s one thing nearly as bad as fear, it’s anger. and vav infuriates him.

but as he approaches, he is breathless. even in the barren wasteland of this empty warehouse, the hero shines. the light is drawn to him, illuminating and crowning him to an angelic mockery of what ryan hates the most. of purity.

vav looks up.

green meets blue and blue becomes frozen, shocked, the shadow dogs stilling at his heels, twisting in curiosity and want. the hero leans forward, like he has forgotten where he is. who he’s facing. the light seems to reach out from him, hoping, wanting, and there’s a silence ryan can’t place- how could he not have known. how has he been so blind.

‘gavin,’ the angel in front of him whispers, and his shadows howl in acceptance and want. they tug at their leashes.

ryan takes a step forward and drops the lines.

* * *

gavin is so pure and he knows he’s pure and he _hates_ being pure and maybe that’s why he’s friends with ray, is because ray has splashes of something else and then he meets ryan and he’s never ever wanted something in his life so bad and he’s not allowed to have that, isn’t allowed to touch that, not supposed to go near that but he reaches out and touches it and grabs on and tugs and pulls and he’s never felt more satisfied than when ryan takes him away from ray and away from his responsibilities

because ryan seems to grab on too and they’re just pulling each other closer without even realizing and it starts in a chair in a warehouse and it never ever seems to end but somewhere in what gavin might think is the middle he finds that he really doesn’t care about the good of other people too much it’s always, always been about himself hasn’t it

gavin is selfish and ryan is dangerous and somewhere in the middle they meet and it’s wonderful

* * *

x-ray and mogar are relentless, now, and ryan’s only solace in this godforsaken city is the alleyways that pull towards him and accept him in dangerous arms. that and one other.

vav, for once, is in shadow, silhouetted against the streetlamps that are foggy and blurred behind him. ryan can feel the light on his eyes and smiles to himself because this is what he wanted, but not quite. not quite.

a gentle gloved hand pulls him upwards, snakes around his waist, practically carries him. they do not go to x-ray’s house, but they do not go to ryan’s lab. somewhere in the middle is a motel that, when gavin cannot find the receptionist, they steal a room key and end up there. the bed is like heaven, despite it’s appearance. or maybe it’s the hero that has wrapped his wounds and stripped to nothing and has lain beside him, awestruck, thin calloused fingers shaking as they trace his jaw. ryan reaches up and thumbs at gavin’s cheekbones, entranced. 

‘they’re going to kill me,’ gavin jokes at one point in the night, his soft voice so out of place, out of this world, a siren’s call and song that ryan adores. he nuzzles gently at the top of his head and presses a kiss to the soft nest of hair.

‘not if i get them first,’ ryan says, as serious as ever, and relishes in the shiver vav gives him before pressing closer.

‘don’t,’ is all his siren breathes. he hums.

‘just for you, pretty boy, i won’t. just for you.’

gavin falls quite not too long after, and ryan contemplates.

 _who has done this to you_ , is all he can think, fingers brushing his hero’s naked torso. he is covered in scars and bruises and with some upset, he recognizes a few as given by his own hand and exploits. he presses soft kisses to a few, feeling gavin squirm beneath him and snicker quietly.

‘you are _everything_ ,’ he whispers, and gavin’s light shines through once more as he turns in his grip, eyes brighter than anything in the world. his lips are chapped, and ryan’s are soft. he still does not understand how someone so perfect is so scarred, and yet he is not.

gavin’s body is impossibly warm against his, and the rain outside is a soothing lullaby along with this perfect boy’s heartbeat.

when he wakes the next morning, his hand is intertwined with gavin’s. it is a promise, a vow, a deal, a bargain. vav’s life for theirs. and ryan knows that if x-ray and mogar die, it will not be by his hand, not in a million years, as long as this man is his.

* * *

vav is taken, and ryan feels like he might be lost too, for those few days

they find him in the basement of some man’s house in the middle of the city, his uniform ripped to shreds and his skin torn as well, inflamed and infected and filling the room with rotten copper. he is dripping with blood and sweat and water and something else.

mogar and x-ray say something- the man who is doing this pauses. ryan watches over a hacked camera. the man turns, his smile too wide, he is too sure. he pulls out a match, and ryan _yells_. ‘don’t you _touch him_ , don’t you _dare-’_

the match drops and ryan feels some kind of emotion so strong that the table beside him shatters. the lamp shatters. the laptop cracks and the last thing ryan sees before the screen shuts off is that fire spreading up _gavin’s_ back and he swears he can feel it on his own.

in an hour, his house is a mess, and there is a knock on the door. x-ray is there. mogar is there, carrying-

‘i know,” x-ray says. ‘i think i’ve always known. has he saved you?’

ryan’s eyes never leave his hero’s body. he nods. x-ray presses a hand to mogar’s arm, and the warrior gently holds vav outwards. 

x-ray looks to ryan, careful and pointed. ‘it’s your turn to save him. don’t bring him back. if he runs, he runs- but you cannot bring him back. he has to choose.’

the door closes, gavin’s face is contorted in pain and his back radiates heat. they’ve done what they can, and it’s his turn now.

 _‘i love you_ ,’ he whispers as he carries his hero down to the lab. ‘and because of that i will not lose you.’

* * *

gavin looks good in _his_ bed, he muses. despite the circumstance. despite the reason. this is what suits him best

the scars are still so shocking to see- the only ones that aren’t are the surgical ones, faded and almost invisible among the myriad of miscellaneous half done tries across every inch ryan can see. 

he doesn’t want to think about it. so he lies down and grasps at gavin’s hand and squeezes, and the room is filled with light as gavin sleepily smiles. 

‘good morning,’ his boy whispers.

‘morning,’ ryan mumbles, blinks slowly.

gavin grunts and rolls over with a pained effort, ryan winces in perfect time with him. they lay there face to face and gavin’s hand brushes his cheek, impossibly gentle but expectedly so. they relax like that for a long while, but it has been a week since gavin has healed enough to walk. to move mostly without injury. he has a choice to make.

neither of them say anything for what feels like hours- ryan’s shadows are howling again. angrily. jealously. hopefully.

the phone rings. everything shatters, for a moment, and they are back to light and dark as the rising sun manages to split between them. but it’s different, this time, and ryan is the one brighter than anything in the world, and gavin is the one in complete darkness, like smoke and fire, obsidian and gold.

and for a moment, it hurts. ryan _hurts_ , as bad as he did before he knew gavin, before he knew _vav_ , before the city and the serum and anything else. suddenly, he understands the desperation and the scars and everything he does. and from the look on gavin’s face he understands too.

there is a moment, a breathtaking and earth shattering moment.

the mad king forces the curtain completely open- they are both shrouded in light- and makes the blinds drop- they are suffocated into darkness-

and then he has the shutters open, and together it’s them, it’s both of them, the mad king and vav, and ryan and gavin, and a mixture of everything they hate and love and want and are disgusted by.

gavin pushes himself forwards and runs his thumb across ryan’s lips.

‘i love you, too,’ he says, loudly but fondly in the silence of the morning, and ryan knows that gavin has chosen to stay.

the dogs settle, the hurt fades, and ryan pulls his fallen angel into a sealing kiss.

* * *

ryan will fucking fall to pieces over this oh so pure boy because this hero is light in it’s purest form and the king wants him so bad but the first law is equivalent exchange and if ryan gets some of gavin’s light then gavin is taking those shadows back with him until they’ve lost sense of heroes and villains and they end up in the same bed each morning

and ryan contemplates

vav was pure sunshine and the mad king was pitch night and now they might be a lightning storm, somewhere in the middle because it’s just them in the early grey mornings and gavin’s hair is so goddamn soft like all the rest of him, despite the scars or burns or bruises and ryan thinks that this might be some sort of love

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr : transvavsquad  
> [original tag unedited](http://transvavsquad.tumblr.com/tagged/poetic-justice)  
> hit me up with some kudos and comments and go and check out all the other aus i have. maybe shoot a question or two. come be my friend.  
> [ryan's backstory](http://transvavsquad.tumblr.com/post/147193380502/fuck-you-ryan-wakes-up-when-he-is-ten-cleaning) written by my [twin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildKingJackal/pseuds/WildKingJackal)


End file.
